The embassies will be in Italy, France and Germany, and aim to set up the company as a gateway to the Chinese market for European vendors, the Financial Times said.

"In the past, it was really only multinationals that could afford to sell their products internationally. But in the last 10 years, much has changed," Alibaba president Michael Evans told the newspaper. The embassies will help "the world to sell to China, and … China to sell to the world", he said.